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One World with Zain Asher
Wednesday's Fire is the Deadliest in Hong Kong in Nearly Three Decades; Prosecutor Dismisses Georgia Election Interference Case; Bloomberg: Witkoff Advised Russia how to Pitch Ukraine Plan to Trump; Fire Rips Through Hong Kong High-Rise Apartment Complex; Trump Strips More Groups of Temporary Protected Status; Trump Moves to End Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired November 26, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: All right, coming to you live from New York. I'm Zain Asher. My colleague Bianna Golodryga is off today. You are
watching "One World" We begin in Hong Kong and the deadliest fire there in nearly three decades. A massive blaze ripped through a high-rise apartment
complex in the Northern Taipo District.
Authorities say at least 13 people were killed. Police say they have multiple reports of people who are still trapped inside. Firefighters
battle the blaze into the night. Video from the scene show huge columns of flames and thick smoke billowing across multiple buildings. Flames spread
on bamboo scaffolding and construction netting set up around the exterior of the complex. Firefighters say scorching hot temperatures are hindering
rescue operations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEREK CHAN ARMSTRONG, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, HONG KONG FIRE DEPARTMENT: We encounter particular difficulties in several areas, like the fire is
spreading quickly to nearby buildings. And we receive numerous assistance calls from the public.
And also, debris and scavenging of the face of buildings are falling down, so pose additional danger to our front-line personnel, besides the
temperature inside the buildings concerned are very high, so it's quite difficult for us to enter the building and go upstairs to conduct a fire
fighting and rescue operation soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: CNN's Ivan Watson joins us live now from Hong Kong. So, Ivan just walk us through, just in terms of the number of people we estimate that
could be still trapped inside. The death toll that, of course, sadly, is still going to rise. Just walk us through what we know so far, and just set
the scene for us.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. I have no idea how many people could be trapped inside these burning towers. It is that
official that you just heard from who announced that there had been multiple contacts from people inside the towers, which have been burning
since before 03:00 p.m. local time.
It started at one of the towers, essentially, and now that we're some like nine hours since then, the fire rapidly spread from one tower to seven of
the eight towers of this public housing development. These towers house nearly 2000 apartment units. They are home to more than 4000 people.
So, you now have a large homeless population, effectively, as a result of several hours of this fire. And then you have at least 13 people killed,
confirmed, one of them, an experienced firefighter, dozens of people injured. And then these reports from the fire department that they were
getting phone calls from people trapped inside and urging them to stay there, saying that the temperatures were simply too hot for rescue workers
to climb up and reach people at higher floors.
The demographics of this housing development is disproportionately elderly. And when there is a fire, the elevators don't tend to work. So, if somebody
was to get an alarm and have to evacuate on a higher floor, we believe these to be 31 storey apartment buildings, which is pretty standard for
Hong Kong.
Then we're talking about potentially elderly people who might have had to walk down 10, 20, 30 floors to escape the fire. So, this will
automatically, would have made it difficult for people who are vulnerable. We've also heard from one resident telling my colleague that she never
heard a fire alarm and kind of evacuated on her own when she realized that the fire was spreading.
All of this adds up to a frightening scenario and some really big questions. How is it possible that in a city with this relatively good
safety record, you could have a fire spread so quickly across a housing development project like this to engulf seven out of eight towers?
There are going to be a lot of questions about that, even as these fires continue to rage completely out of control, and not only consume the
interior, but also this bamboo scaffolding and the construction netting that was surrounding all of these buildings that were undergoing
renovations when this terrible disaster took place, Zain.
[11:05:00]
ASHER: All right, Ivan Watson, live for us there. Thank you so much. I want to bring in Stephen Mackenzie, an Independent Fire and Emergency Planning
Consultant. Steven, thank you so much for being with us. I'm not sure if you heard our Ivan Watson reporting on the ground there.
But he was listing a whole host of sort of troubling issues that had potentially arise as a result of this fire, including one woman saying that
she didn't hear a fire alarm. The fact that this fire spread so quickly, seven out of eight buildings engulfed. And then there's the issue of the
bamboo scaffolding. Talk to us about that, because he was saying that could be a major factor in terms of how quickly this fire spread.
STEPHEN MACKENZIE, FIRE AND EMERGENCY PLANNING CONSULTANT: Yeah, we're still the early stage and getting reports from the fire department. It is a
massive incident. We're not sure if the fire started on the external the building within the bamboo scalp (ph) which has caused, or can, at least
contributed to the fire jumping from one tower block to the next to the next to the next.
I haven't seen anything like this, a post war. This incident is just incomprehensible, and I've just heard your -- on scene press reporters or
responses, and I'm deeply, deeply concerned after spending eight years on post Grenfell responses, advising governments, civic authorities, fire
services, not only in the UK and international basis, that this fire is going to eclipse anything that we've seen.
We've got 700 firefighters on site. All the local hospitals will be on major alerts. But if we cannot get to the residents, and they are forced to
stay put, then we've got a very serious, devastating scenario ahead of us.
ASHER: I mean, I can't imagine how terrifying? How truly terrifying it must be for residents who still might be trapped on some of the upper floors? We
know that fire authorities say they were really struggling to get to some of the towers upper floors because of the intense heat.
I just literally cannot imagine what people who are trapped may be going through right now. We know that there are a lot of elderly residents in
this building. And Ivan Watson, our reporter on the ground there was saying that, you know, when you have a fire engulf a building like this, the
elevators don't work, which adds to the sort of issue of people being trapped.
Just in terms of the process of trying to get people out. That is, of course, the priority at this point in time. What are the major headwinds to
that?
MACKENZIE: I think what we've got in Hong Kong is a very sophisticated and practiced emergency response. And that's why you're seeing 700 firefighters
and the police service and ambulance service in the hospital was all gearing up for a mass casualty event. It's still early days. We've only got
reports of 13 dead, including, sadly, one firefighter.
But I'm deeply, deeply concerned, as a hospital fire safety expert and the ex-Vice Chair of the American Plan Society in London and the UK, that we've
got an aging population. We all often see overpopulation in Hong Kong buildings. We get a massive homeless community. We don't know the state
that appear off the building.
Essentially the individual fire type boxes around the flats are no life support for all those residents that can't self-evacuate or can't be
assisted evacuation until we can get these fires under control. We model for one fire in a tower block, not seven, and that is going to be the
concern tonight.
And it's going to take some very astute on the ground, dynamic fire assessments and fire attacks to stabilize the situation, get to those that
we can actually save and then mobilize the entire Hong Kong apparatus. I can see even a military civilian roll out for this one.
We just haven't seen anything of this size post-World War Two. I'm absolutely flabbergasted that I've been on communications with the XMP from
the Grenfell community, following the London Farm 2020 -- 2017 where we saw just one tower block a blaze. We lost 72 persons in there, and the entire
community was displaced for months, if not years, on end.
And I've also had communications from the International Tall Buildings Network Chair, Ross Timson today. So, we've all livened up since early
hours this morning covering this fire incident. And I'm absolutely furious because I advise the Chair of the Grenfell inquiry in the UK to advise the
prime minister to put the United Nations online on notice that we could have other dangerous blocks.
[11:10:00]
That was eight years ago, and I've done over 600 press comments. I cover major incidents. It's what I do. Advise government departments. I sit on
select committees. I sit on public inquiries, et cetera. I have never, ever seen anything like this outside the war zone.
ASHER: You know, just looking at some of the video here, we can see fire engines, dozens of fire engines, outside these buildings. And they appear
to be battling the fire using, obviously, water hoses to battle the fires at the lower floors. But just talk to us about the strategy for reaching
the much higher floors, in terms of how they tackle the fire there.
MACKENZIE: What we'll have is very rapidly from the first-person unit for the first emergency call to rapidly escalated to the highest level of
incident response. That's actually a goal command. And there'll be dialog with government and across emergency services agencies.
They're going to attack this from 2.1 is the external fire containment and trying to limit the fire spread and trying to get the external fire under
control. And then there will also be supported firefighters on breathing apparatus going into the interior of the building, into the protected
stair, but it is only as good as the maintenance regime.
I don't know if this building has fire suppression, which could help contain some of the fire spread and aspects. And we don't know the state of
any firefighter, water supply, any firefighting access, any internal, what we call wet rises, because over a certain height, we just can't get the
hoses up and in.
We need a static pipe within the stair core to allow us to tackle that fire. And then firefighters can deplete, as we saw in Grenfell, can deplete
their oxygen and become fatigued trying to get up those 31 storeys to get to people. And then there'll be a massive thing in the background with
emergency controls, giving persons trapped in a fire life-saving advice, get down, get low.
Put damp towels over the doors and what the one, don't open the windows and put damp cloths over your mouth, trying to limit the smoke inhalation,
because that is the killer. It's not actually the fire; it's the actual smoke inhalation. And try and save as many persons as we possibly can.
And then once we get people out and get the injured triage and get them off to hospital, we've also got a massive local government exercise to
accommodate all the displaced and also help. I'm getting a little bit choked up myself here, also help family members reconnect the loved ones.
It's there were so many lessons after Grenfell. We should not see this. We do not outside Asia Bambu scavenger hunt used. We use steel and aluminum,
and would even recommend to clients to take as much combustible load and off the extent of the building.
We've got 10,000 impacted buildings in the UK. There has been international attention on Grenfell across the globe, within -- planning and civil
resilience communities. And how has this happened? But to know today, it's how many lives can we actually save? And I'm going to stop commenting
there, because this is absolutely tragic. I'll answer any questions that you have.
ASHER: Well, I mean, we actually have to leave it there, Stephen. But you bring up so many, so many important points. I mean, just it is heart
wrenching, because you cannot even imagine what the loved ones not just what the people who are trapped in the building are going through, but the
loved ones who are watching from the outside, knowing that their loved ones may still be inside the building, knowing that they haven't heard from
their loved ones for a certain number of time, and not knowing if their loved ones may ever make it out.
I mean, it is devastating on multiple counts, especially as you point out. You know, we've already, as a global community, been through this before in
the not-so-distant past in terms of what happened in 2017 with the Grenfell Tower fire, that was also I mean, that brings back, obviously, very, very
painful memories for so many of us who covered that.
And obviously people who are on the ground there in North Kensington where it happened. Stephen Mackenzie live for us. Thank you so much. All right,
breaking news from the U.S. State of Georgia, the new prosecutor is dismissing the state's election interference case against President Donald
Trump and his allies.
Pete Skandalakis decision comes two weeks after he appointed himself as prosecutor. President Trump and others had been charged with an attempt to
overturn 2020, presidential election. Let's bring in David Weinstein, Former State and Federal Prosecutor.
[11:15:00]
So, David, I think it's just important for our audience to be brought up to speed here, because there have been so many sorts of moving developments in
this particular case in just the past couple of weeks. Of course, our audience hopefully will remember that Fanny Willis was disqualified.
There was an issue with conflict of interest there. And the state's Prosecuting Attorneys Counsel did try to find a replacement. And then the
Director of the Counsel, Pete Skandalakis, essentially appointed himself. Explain to us now why this case has been officially dismissed?
DAVID WEINSTEIN, FORMER STATE & FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, let's give credit where credit is due Mr. Skandalakis for taking over this case, for
analyzing the evidence and making a hard decision here. I think we have to look at the headline first, which is that he's decided to dismiss the case.
But then dig into his 23-page memorandum for the rest of the story. I think it's important to note that he's not necessarily making a finding that
there was absolutely no criminal conduct here. Quite to the contrary, he's basing his decision on several technicalities involving access to documents
by charge defendants.
By statements that are made by people who have already pled guilty. By attorney client privilege issues and most importantly, as it relates to the
lead defendant in the case, the immunity that was given broadly to a President by the U.S. Supreme Court, by the decisions that Jack Smith then
made when he was special prosecutor regarding whether to bring this case in federal court.
And finally, comes down to also venue where the crimes are alleged to have taken place. And coupled together with all of that, and the fact that the
lead defendant is currently the President of the United States and couldn't even appear on state charges until after his term ended in 2029. That's why
he's made the decision today to dismiss this.
I think the takeaway is it's not that he found nothing happened here. He found that it was just too difficult to prosecute this case at the end of
the day and to find himself tied up in Courts of Appeals and litigation that could stretch on for a very long time.
ASHER: When you look at the various criminal cases that were laid before Donald Trump, the President, this was considered the likely of all the
criminal cases to actually go to trial, and that's because it was a state case. You had a local Georgia prosecutor. It wasn't federal charges that,
of course, could have been pardoned.
So, based on that, and obviously we all remember the January phone call where President Trump apparently called Brad Raffensperger asking to find
him more votes. Based on that for viewers who are watching, where is the accountability then?
WEINSTEIN: Well, I think some of the accountability still lies with the people who are involved in this conduct. Remember, a number of these people
have pled guilty and admitted what their conduct was. Again, he doesn't make an out and out finding that there was no criminal conduct.
Certainly, that phone call is central here. He analyzed it two different ways. One that favored the prosecution, one that favored the defense.
Ultimately, if it had gone to trial, that would have been a decision for the jury to make, but that call itself was complicated by who made the
call.
And the broad immunity that was given to a sitting President by the U.S. Supreme Court. And the fact that that was going to get tied up in
litigation for years, and it wasn't going to start until 2029. In terms of accountability, I don't think he's made any statement about accountability.
I think he's made a statement about difficulty and how hard it would have been for him to proceed forward with this case, given all of the moving
actors and players and things that were going to be going on.
ASHER: All right, David Weinstein, live for us. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right; we'll be right back with more after the
short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:20:00]
ASHER: All right, one day after the White House claimed only a few delicate details remain before a Ukraine peace deal is finalized. Russia is lowering
expectations, and the pendulum appears to be swinging back in Moscow's favor. The Kremlin spokesperson warns it is too soon to discuss the final
agreement, and that even in the U.S., there are people who will try to obstruct a deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DMITRY PESKOV, KREMLIN SPOKESPERSON: Wait for now. It's premature to say so, the fact that there will be quite a lot of people in various countries,
including the United States, who will try to derail these peaceful developments. Well, that's for sure. There will be many of them on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: On Tuesday night U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to imply that he wasn't looking for any compromises from Russia when he said their big
concession is if they stop fighting and don't take any more land. He also said he hopes Ukraine can make a deal, while disregarding the Thursday
deadline he initially set up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't have a deadline. I just, you know, the deadline for me is when it's over. And I
think everybody's tired of fighting at this moment. They're losing -- they're losing too many people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll is expected in Kyiv in the coming days. And President Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will be
going to Moscow next week to meet with Vladimir Putin. Witkoff's role in peace efforts is coming under a new spot line after a report indicated that
he coached a Putin aid on how to pitch the peace plan to President Trump.
A new recording obtained by Bloomberg reflects the genesis of the original 28-point peace plan presented by the White House. CNN's Betsy Klein of
Washington for us with more on this. So just walk us through what President Trump himself had to say about these accusations based on this leak phone
call that Steve Witkoff, U.S. Envoy, was essentially coaching the Russians on how to sort of pitch themselves to President Trump? And also, how to
position themselves with this peace plan?
BETSY KLIEN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, President Trump essentially brushing this off, but we are getting these new and remarkable
details on the path toward this 28-point peace plan that has been the subject of so much intense negotiation between the Trump Administration
along with Ukrainian and Russian officials in recent weeks.
And at the root of this is this rare and remarkable transcript obtained of audio obtained and transcribed by Bloomberg of this call between Special
Envoy Steve Witkoff along with Kremlin Aide Yuri Ushakov. Now what Witkoff is doing in this call is essentially advising Ushakov on how President
Putin should approach an upcoming call with President Trump.
This call took place on October 14th. And I just want to read to you a little bit from Bloomberg's transcript. Witkoff says, quote, just reiterate
that you congratulate the president on this achievement, that you supported it, that you respect that he is a man of peace, and you're just, you're
really glad to have seen it happen.
Witkoff there, referring to the president's deal to broker peace in the Middle East. Ushakov goes on to say, I agree with you that he will
congratulate. He will say that Mr. Trump is a real peace man and so and so. The president's reaction is essentially to give Witkoff his full backing.
He was asked about this on Air Force One and told reporters that Witkoff is a deal maker. And this is how the negotiation process works. Ushakov, for
his part, saying in a statement quote, some of these leaks are fake. My conversations with Witkoff are confidential. No one should disclose them,
no one.
[11:25:00]
But we are also starting to hear some criticism from Republican hawks on Capitol Hill, including Republican Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska, who
says that the transcript of this call essentially reveals that Witkoff fully favors the Russians.
Now I want to take you through the timeline here. This call, as I mentioned, happened on October 14th, two days later, President Trump did
indeed speak to President Putin, and according to the president's own readout of that call, Putin did congratulate him on Middle East peace.
The president, around that time, began to starkly shift his tone. He had been very frustrated with Russia's lack of progress in these negotiations,
and appeared to shift back toward Russia following this call. Two days later, Trump hosted Zelenskyy, where he pressed the Ukrainian President to
make territorial concessions.
So, you can see how this call all factors into where we are now, with Witkoff expected to return to Moscow in the coming days.
ASHER: Betsy Klein, thank you so much. All right, still ahead, the Towering Inferno in Hong Kong, we'll talk to a firefighter who helped to tackle a
deadly blaze in a London high rise back in 2017.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: All right. Welcome back to "One World". I'm Zain Asher in New York. Here are some of the headlines we are watching for you today. U.S. Special
Envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Moscow next week for additional negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
[11:30:00]
And he may be joined by President Trump's Son-in-Law, Jared Kushner. It comes as the Kremlin warns it's premature to talk about the war being close
to an end. On Tuesday, the White House said a deal was near with only a few delicate details remaining.
At least 13 people have been killed in a massive fire that engulfed an apartment complex in Hong Kong. It's feared that more people are trapped
inside the complex, which has around 2000 apartments. More than a third of the residents are elderly.
British Finance Minister Rachel Reeves has just unveiled the UK government's economic plan for the year ahead. It calls for about $34
billion in tax hikes before she could deliver her speech to parliament a few hours ago, the UK's budgetary watchdog mistakenly published its
official forecast on the plan early.
Israel says the body of a hostage returned from Gaza through the Red Cross has been identified as Dror Or the father of three was killed in the
October 7th attack alongside his wife Yonat. Two of their children were abducted and taken hostage into Gaza, but were released the following
month. Two more hostage bodies still remain in Gaza.
All right, let's turn back to our breaking news. China's state broadcaster reports President Xi Jinping is expressing his condolences the victims of
today's deadly fire in Hong Kong. Firefighters say they're struggling to get to the upper floors of the apartment complex because of intense heat
and falling debris as well the buildings were cloaked in construction mesh and also bamboo scaffolding.
Shocked residents watched as the flames and smoke funneled up from the complex. Let's bring in Ricky Nuttall who was among the first responders
who fought the deadly fire London's Grenfell Towers back in 2017. Ricky, thank you so much for being with us.
I can't even imagine how difficult this must be for you to watch, because I'm sure it brings back a lot of difficult and dark memories because of the
flashback of what happened at the Grenfell Towers back in 2017. But just in terms of some of the parallels here, obviously, its early days, and we
don't necessarily know what could have caused the fires in these high-rise buildings in Hong Kong to spread so rapidly.
But we do know that, for example, with the Grenfell Towers, one of the issues was extremely combustible external cladding. We also know that with
the Hong Kong fires that there has been the use of bamboo scaffolding, which some experts who are watching this from the periphery, essentially
saying, you know, may have, may have contributed to this fire, also spreading rapidly as well.
Just based on your perspective and again, it is early days, but what are some of the similarities you can spot from where you are?
RICKY NUTTALL, FIREFIGHTER, RESPONDED TO 2017 GRENFELL TOWE FIRE: Well, to start with, I think with the tower block flop, with the tower block fire,
it's always difficult in terms of how you approach the fire, because in a general construction in the UK, there shouldn't really be any compartmental
breach from one part to the other.
Obviously, in the case of Grenfell Tower, the problem we had in the fire service was the external spread, which seems to run fairly parallel with
what's happening at the moment in Hong Kong. Obviously, as you said, it's very early days, and I'm sure the fire service out there will release
statements at a later point indicating how this fire has spread so rapidly. But it does seem very likely that the bamboo scaffolding has played a major
role in this.
ASHER: I think that one of the sorts of more painful parts of the Grenfell Tower fire back in 2017 that 72 people died as a result, was that
initially, a lot of the residents were told to stay put. And obviously you can only imagine that it is highly possible that if they weren't given that
order.
That perhaps, again, I don't know for sure, but perhaps more lives could have been saved. When you're dealing with a high-rise building obviously,
there are extreme challenges at play in terms of evacuating people, especially the higher up your floor, the harder obviously it is to evacuate
because the elevators stop working.
You also have in this particular complex a lot of elderly people. So, there are challenges as well there. Talk to us about what the evacuation
protocols were in the Grenfell Tower fire and what some of the lessons that were learned in that particular case?
NUTTALL: I think the biggest thing when it came to Grenfell was understanding the building construction and the failings of the companies
involved that hadn't maintained safety systems that should have worked much, much better than they did.
For instance, there was a protected stairwell which firefighters would use to evacuate people of affected floors. What actually happened in the case
of Grenfell was that the smoke vents on those floors failed to work, which meant that stairwell was no longer protected, which meant the air was
irrespirable. Nobody could breathe on there.
[11:35:00]
Which meant a firefighters had to be under air, wasting oxygen on the way up to different floors to carry out the firefighting operations. But it
also meant that you weren't able to evacuate safely people from affected floors onto a stairwell, because they still wouldn't be able to breathe in
that area.
I think when you look at Hong Kong, and you raise the point of high percentage of elderly residents with that comes a huge issue around
mobility. Are people in wheelchairs? Can people not walk? What are their conditions? Are they on oxygen? All of these things will play hugely into
any kind of plan the fire service out there has in terms of evacuating its residents.
ASHER: Thank you for bring up such an important point about the smoke conditions and what that means for firefighters. And also, the vertical
spread as well, is also an important factor. When it comes to how these fires are tackled with high-rise buildings, when you have these fire trucks
and ladders and sort of them shooting water.
It can only just look at this video here I'm not sure if you can -- I don't think you can see it from your screen. But it appears that these, you know,
the water, can only reach so high, possibly 10, 12, 13 floors. Explain the challenges of actually combating the fire at the highest floors.
NUTTALL: Well, again, the problem with any kind of high-rise incident is water towers are never as big as the building itself. The idea when these
buildings are constructed is that they work on a set of sound principles, so that fire cannot spread externally.
And is very difficult to spread from one compartment to the next, effectively, meaning that when all the fuel in a compartment is exhausted,
that fire then just dies, because you need fuel in order for it to burn. When it comes to firefighting operations, again at Grenfell, the problem
was that we didn't have anything that was big enough to fight a fire externally above about the same, about the 10th floor.
Some of that has been addressed fire and rescue service with taller ladders. What it basically means is internally, normally, where you
wouldn't go on to or above a fire floor without extinguishing may be higher hoses and water. In actual fact, what we had to do was go through several
floors engulfed in smoke and flames, and hope that when we got to the floor, we needed to carry out our operations on.
That we would have water from what's called a dry riser, which is effectively a drain pipe that runs up the inside of the building and is
fueled with water from the outside. The problem, obviously, is that the further up in the building you go, the more pressure is required for that
water to reach those higher floors.
And it also means, if there are multiple levels that are having firefighter operations conducted on, it means that some of that water is being used,
which could potentially mean when you get to the higher floors, there's actually no water or any water pressure for you to carry out the operations
there anyway.
ASHER: All right, Ricky Nuttall, thank you so much again. Just, I'm really thinking about the people who are trapped. Just can't imagine how intense
and terrifying that must be. I mean, obviously you talk about smoke and inhalation, that's an issue that the sheer heat incredibly hard, even just
sort of touching a door handle, you know, just the risk of getting -- I mean, there's so many, there's so many challenges, just in terms of
emotionally.
What people are going through who are still trapped in this building? I cannot even begin to comprehend. Ricky Nuttall, thank you so much for
joining us on this. We'll have much more on this breaking news story later on in the coming hours. We'll be right back with more after this short
break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:40:00]
ASHER: The Trump Administration is ending the temporary protected status for several groups living in the United States. Legal protection prevents
people from being deported to disaster zones and allowing them the right to work. This week, the administration strips citizens of Myanmar the
protection, arguing that they can now safely go back.
They pointed to the upcoming elections as evidence of an improving situation, but the country is still gripped by civil war and still plagued
with human rights abuses. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says temporary protected status was never meant to be an asylum program.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The president wants to bring integrity to our programs and make sure that they're applied appropriately
to the individuals into the countries to which they're supposed to benefit.
We plan to follow the process that's in law to evaluate TPS and how it applies to different countries and individuals from them. It was never
meant to be an asylum program. It was always meant to be put in place after an incident or an event on a temporary basis, and that's what the
evaluation will be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: And late last week, Mr. Trump also announced an end to temporary protected status for Somalis in Minnesota, claiming that Somali gangs are
terrorizing people. In October, the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump could proceed with plans to end temporary deportation protections for
more than 300,000 Venezuelans living in the United States.
So far, the Trump Administration has ended Temporary Protected Status for people from nine different countries and has moved to end the protections
for some eight others. Some cancelations are set to take effect in late 2026. People from Haiti, El Salvador and Ukraine, all slated to lose TPS
protection.
Make up 97 percent of all TPS beneficiaries, along with Venezuela, Honduras, whose protections have already been terminated. Joining us live
now from New York U.S. Immigration Attorney David Leopold. David, thank you so much for being with us.
So just in terms of people here who have -- who are basically about to or have lost that TPS status, what sort of legal recourse, or what recourse,
if any, do they have at all to slow down that process of being sent back home?
DAVID LEOPOLD, U.S. IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: Thank you for having me Zain. Look a couple points about whether it's Temporary Protected Status TPS or
refugee and asylum law. These programs, the United States is a safe haven for people who are fleeing disasters or people who are fleeing persecution
or horrific torture.
These are -- these reflect our core values as Americans. I mean, that's ultimately why our country was put together as a safe haven. The first
Americans came here in search of freedom, and that's why freedom is a core, a core value. And these programs reflect that.
And I think what most Americans want, you know, if you look at the polling, and especially the polling lately, Americans are really want a safe,
orderly and fair refugee program or TPS program, programs that protect people safe, orderly and fair.
And also, I think what Americans want is the borders to be secure and national security. So, what we need is a robust program that not only
covers and protects our core values as Americans. Asylum, refugee protection for those in need of safe haven.
But also, it's done in a way that's orderly, so that we are people are getting cases decided quickly, and people are not waiting for you years and
years, which causes, you know, I know, in the opening, Tricia McLaughlin talked about how it's not TPS is not a permanent program.
[11:45:00]
The problem we have is that the programs are so under-funded and so under maintained, that backlog is developed. So, what we need is a robust
rebuilding of the American refugee program and immigration program as a whole.
ASHER: So just in terms of more, you know, more specifically, for those who are here under TPS, if they are being sent back, and you know, they're sort
of staring down the pipe of possibly going back to home countries that are quite frankly, extremely dangerous, like, for example, Haiti, like, for
example, Ukraine as well.
LEOPALD: Yes.
ASHER: What are the options that they have at this point? Do they have any?
LEOPALD: Well, they have options, depending on the case. And again, it's not a one size fits all. So, for example, if somebody is from Haiti or from
Ukraine, there may be options under the asylum law. TPS is a status. It's that may permit them to switch to another status. So, another immigrant,
another legal immigration status. It really depends.
But there are those Zain, and I think that's what you're focused on, who do not have a choice. So, somebody from Haiti, for example, who cannot get a
work visa outside of temporary protective status. What is she or he supposing to do? Haiti, we know, has serious problems.
It's had serious problems for many years. So, I think, you know, we are putting people in a position of having no choices. And you know, the thing
is, this country needs, needs workers. It's not just me saying that. The President of the United States said that last week.
And he's correct. And we do need workers, and we'll need is a robust program that's going to serve the needs of the American economy, American
global enterprise, and make sure that our borders are secure at the same time.
ASHER: All right, David Leopold in New York, thank you so much for joining us on this, David. And for more on the local impact of these moves at the
national level I'm joined by Casey Rolling. She's the Executive Director and Board President of St. Vincent De Paul, a Catholic Faith Based Non-
Profit.
She joins us live now from Springfield, Ohio, where the group works to feed, clothe and find shelter for people in need. Casey, I specifically
want to talk about people who are from Haiti and what they might end up going back to because the Trump Administration is going to revoke the legal
status and work permits of hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants arguing.
They argue that the conditions in Haiti have sufficiently improved for them to return home. But at the same time, the U.S. government also issues
warnings for any American going to Haiti because of the political instability, the fact that they say it's played by gang violence, and we've
covered this on our program many, many times, and also widespread poverty.
There's violence, there's assault, the list goes on. Explain to us what awaits some of these TPS recipients if they end up going back to Port Au
Prince. And I want to make it clear that it's not all parts of Haiti that are ravaged by violence, but really specifically Port Au Prince.
CASEY ROLLINS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND BOARD PRESIDENT, ST. VINCENT DE PAUL: So, I really am not an expert in any of that. We're here to help our fellow
man. We're here to help our neighbors. I don't know what awaits them, but I know what they believe awaits them.
And I know what we are hearing awaits them, and that's the gangs and the violence and all of the degradation of their country, and fearing for that
and knowing what they have been through already. We are here just to help our neighbors as people of faith and people of good will do. At Saint
Vincent De Paul, we never knew this was what, where our ministry would go in 2017 when this, when we saw this beginning?
ASHER: It looks as though we have lost Casey Rollings there. We'll try to get her back on the other side of this short break. Hopefully we will be
able to but take a break. We're going to try to get Casey back on the side of it. Stay with us.
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[11:50:00]
ASHER: All right, let's bring in our guest again, Casey Rollins, the Executive Director and Board President of St. Vincent De Paul, a Catholic
Faith Based Nonprofit. Before the break, she was talking to us about what her charity is actually doing to help immigrants, particularly those from
Haiti, who may see their TPS Temporary Protected Status revoked as a result of some changes by the Trump Administration.
Casey, thank you so much for being with us again. But just talk to us specifically about some of the sort of personal stories you're hearing from
some of the people you are helping, people who are Haitian migrants who fear what awaits them when they go back to if and when they go back to Port
Au Prince.
ROLLINS: So, we have lots of families that are in fear of their lives to go back. Many folks believe that all Haitians are poor, and they came here to
us poor and just needed to rely on our system for support. And of course, that is absolutely not the case.
These are people that love work and want to work and want to serve and contribute to the community. And in so doing, that's you know why they came
here to get work. Several of them now have lost their jobs here, and now are in need of things that they didn't need before, which is food and which
is shelter.
I just got a call about a homeless family, Haitian family, that is in a local hotel outside of town, which I'll, you know, be needing to address
here soon. We're starting to see all those kinds of things. So, they're having that problem here. But at the same time, is that really worse than
what they would be dealing with when they went home, which, you know, once they get there, if wherever they get once they get home, are they even
going to be able to survive?
So, we have countless stories like that. We also have children everywhere that we're working that are American born infant we're working to also
protect. Who, if their parents are deported, those children will be left here as dependent children in America.
ASHER: So how do you help? I mean, if those parents end up being sent back to Haiti, and their children who are born here are American citizens,
obviously, they have the right to stay in this country. What is -- I mean - - that is an incredible need for those children who are now left to navigate life in the U.S. without their parents. How do you assist those
children?
ROLLINS: So, our need to stay out of the politics is imperative for us. But to stay into the humanitarian role that we serve, what we decided to try to
do was to help with the passports. We thought, well, we can't have any say in policy or anything like that, but we can at least try to keep families
together, which is a part of, you know, a ministerial objective for us.
So, how about whatever you know happens, where families go? We don't be -- we're not part of that. We will instead, make sure that the children of
these families have passports so that they can travel wherever that is.
[11:55:00]
And we certainly don't want to see them deported. We certainly don't want to see them go to, you know, a dangerous place. But we again, have no say
in that matter. So, we just want to be able to keep the families together. And we are at St. Vincent, lots of people have come to the rescue and are
helping us fund that program, because we don't have the money to do that, so, but we are funding it now through local donations.
ASHER: And how do you help just quickly, because we are running out of time, how do you help some of these TPS recipients navigate the legal
uncertainties as well that they're facing?
ROLLINS: So, there are lots and lots of pro-bono attorneys who know that these costs are insurmountable. I probably that's a bigger word that I
could have used, but it's big. And so, a lawyer just called and interrupted our conversation here, seeking ways to help us with that.
Again, we don't provide finances to cover those legal costs. We provide services to connect people to them. We do know legal services here
directly. We just connect people to people, and we connect other local advocates to Haitian immigrants and other immigrants as well to just to
make sure that people have the right options. Yeah.
ASHER: Well, Casey Rollins, thank you so much for the work that you're doing. I know that a lot of these immigrants are very dependent on the
goodwill of Americans like you. Thank you. Stay with CNN, I'll have much more "One World" after the short break.
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